412 ; SNIPE. 
in Pennsylvania about the 10\n of March, and remains in the low 
grounds for several weeks; the greater part then move off to the 
north, and to the higher inland districts, to breed. A few are occa- 
sionally found, and consequently breed, in our low marshes, during 
the summer. When they first arrive, they are usually lean; but, 
when in good order, are accounted excellent eating. They are per- 
haps the most difficult to shoot of all our birds, as they fly in sudden 
zigzag lines, and very rapidly. Great numbers of these birds winter 
on the rice grounds of the Southern States, where, in the month of 
February, they appeared to be much tamer than they are usually here, 
as I frequently observed them Tunning about among the pease and 
watery thickets. I was told by the inhabitants that they genera y dis- 
appeared early in the spring. On the 20th of March, 1 found these 
birds extremely numerous on the borders of the ponds near Louisville, 
Kentucky, and also in the neighborhood of Lexington, in the same 
state, as late as the 10th of April. I was told by several people that 
they are abundant in the [linois country, up as far as Lake Michigan. 
They are but seldom seen in Pennsylvania during the summer, but are 
occasionally met with in considerable numbers on their return in au- 
tumn, along the whole eastern side of the Alleghany, from the sea to 
the mountains. They have the same soaring, irreeular flight in the 
air, in gloomy weather, as the Snipe of Europe; the same bleating 
note and occasional rapid descent; spring from the marshes with the 
like feeble squeak ; and in every respect resemble the Common Snipe 
of Britain, except in being about an inch Jess, and in having sixteen 
feathers in the tail, instead of fourteen, — the number said by Bewick 
to be in that of Europe. From these circumstances, we must either 
conclude this to be a different species, or partially changed by differ- 
ence of climate ; the former appears to me the most probable opinion 
of the two. 
These birds abound in the meadows and low grounds along our 
large rivers, particularly those that border the Schuylkill and Dela- 
ware, from the 10th of March to the middle of April, and sometimes 
later, and are eagerly sought after by many of our gunners. The na- 
ture of the grounds, however, which these birds frequent, the coldness 
of the season, and peculiar shyness and agility of the game, render 
this amusement attractive only to the most dexterous, active, and 
eager of our sportsmen. 
The Snipe is eleven inches long, and seventeen inches in extent ; 
the bill is more than two inches and a half long, fluted lengthwise, of 
a brown color, and black towards the tip, where it is very smowh 
while the bird is alive, but, soon after it is killed, becomes dimpled, 
like the end of a thimble; crown, black, divided by an irregular line 
of pale brown; another broader one of the same tint passes over each 
eye; from the bill to the eye, there is a narrow, dusky line; neck and 
upper part of the breast, pale brown, varicgated with touches of white 
and dusky ; chin, pale; back and scapulars, deep velvety black, the 
latter elegantly marbled with waving lines of ferruginous, and broadly 
edged exteriorly with white ; wings, plain dusky, all the feathers, as 
well as those of the coverts, tipped with white ; shoulder of the wing, 
deep dusky brown, exterior quill, edged with white ; tail-coverts long, 
reaching within three quarters of an inch of the tip, and ofa pale rust, 
